One Last Chance
by The Hooded Author
Summary: "You're just not cut out to be a trainer." That's what everyone's told Kathy Rooke, ever since she embarked on her first journey six years ago. Perhaps they have a point. After all, she's careless, forgetful, and luck has never been on her side. But despite all that, she's giving it one more go. Will she succeed this time? And what will happen when a nefarious plot gets in her way?


This story begins, like many stories do, with a trainer receiving a pokémon. Unfortunately, in this case, said trainer was after one particular pokémon, and since the summer months were fast approaching, that particular species had migrated to the higher points of Mount Coronet. And, since Mount Coronet was treacherous, full of creatures powerful enough to fend off even the most experienced battlers, it was a struggle just surviving the journey.

So it was that Kathy found herself trekking up the mountain, wondering if it was really worth risking her life for this.

She had to admit, as she tugged her boot free from yet another deep patch of snow, the cold and the wet seeping through her trouser leg, that she wished there was someone more experienced she could have asked to make the journey for her. But she wasn't exactly doing this with her parents' permission, and other than them, there were very few people she could call on.

She stopped for a moment, taking a moment to look back at the progress she'd made. The path stretched for miles behind her, an endless downwards slope of perfect white. Any other colour was just a distant memory; the patches of green she'd seen on the way up were totally out of sight now, and her coat was covered in such a thick layer of snow that no one would have guessed it used to be black.

There was a screech somewhere ahead of her, high and echoed, and it was followed by a dozen similar cries. Probably just the zubats waking up in their caves. It was later than she thought, then. She looked up; there was a fleck of orange behind the clouds. Old fairy tales of wanderers that got caught on the mountain at night suddenly flashed through her mind. She'd have to move fast.

She adjusted her backpack slightly, the weight heavy on her weary back, and then continued onwards. It was a good thing her feet were so numb from the cold, otherwise they'd have been in a lot of pain. She only hoped she could make it down again with all ten of her toes still attached.

Night moved fast on the mountain. Already the air was getting colder, biting at her face. The wind was strong, trying to push her back, and snow and hail pelted against her goggles, making it almost impossible to see anything. At one point, a shadowy figure rushed past her, either huge and distant or small and close, and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Perhaps it was something weak, she thought, easy to handle, but she couldn't quite convince herself. Either way, she was relieved when she made it to her goal without running into it again.

The summit, one of the mountain's few distinct landmarks, was just above her. Between her and it, however, was a sheer cliff face. Once upon a time, there had been steps leading right up to it, but over the years the stone had been chipped and frozen and buried by the snow. Nowadays, climbing the rocks was actually the less dangerous of the two options.

She took just a second to prepare herself, then reached up, tracing the surface with her gloved fingers until she found a decent hold for them. Satisfied, she shrugged her backpack off, her whole body sighing with relief as she shed the weight, and she dug her fingers into the hold. She hoisted herself up and she climbed, the storm so thick now that her hands had to search blindly for the next holds. It was a struggle just to keep her grip; a couple of times she found herself grabbing loose rocks, and the moment she put down any weight on them, they dislodged and tumbled to the ground below her. Each time she gasped, suddenly reminded of how much real danger she was in, but she would quickly shake off the feeling and keep going.

This wasn't, after all, the first mountain she'd climbed. The first one she'd climbed without her parents, or without a guide, yes, but she was confident that she knew enough now to manage by herself. Indeed, it wasn't long before her fingers wrapped around the edge of the cliff, and she pulled herself up and clambered over onto the summit.

She lay there, breathing heavily and trying not to think about the climb back down. And then, before the snowfall could bury her, she stood up, shook herself off, and took in the view.

The summit was simply breathtaking. She'd heard the stories, of course, but it looked even better than it had in her imagination. Crumbling pillars stood holding up a long collapsed ceiling, still impressive despite their age. Once, they might have been considered stone, but now they may as well have been built from snow. The wind seemed to whisper the memories of the place, long forgotten secrets of old.

She put a hand to one of the pillars, letting it sink through the snow until she was touching the original thing. The stone seemed to move under her weight, and she had a sudden fleeting worry that she was going to knock the whole thing over. What had these pillars seen? she wondered. What had they been built for, all those years ago?

She didn't let herself wonder for long. The night was still fast approaching, and she needed to get off the mountain soon. Reminding herself of what her true goal was, she crept up the path, whistling the tune her mother had once taught her.

There was a rustle, loud against the peace of the mountain, and she suddenly had the sinking feeling that she'd attracted something much bigger than what she was looking for. But then the creature stepped out of the storm, short but bulky, its arms thick and strong.

Perfect. She could make this one into a battler, easy.

"Hey, lil' guy," she said to the snover. With one hand, she reached out to it, offered it a handful of wild berries she'd collected on her trip. With the other, she held the empty pokéball in her jacket pocket, just in case things went south and she had to catch it quickly. If she could get it on her side without a battle, she'd be happy.

It stalked towards her, curious. Its tongue tickled her skin as it nibbled at the berries, and with a sigh of relief, she let go of the ball and put her hand to its head. She patted it gently, knocking some snow loose from its coat. 'It', she realised then, an extra strip of brown revealing itself on its body, was actually a 'he'.

She noticed it too late, the scowl on his face. He shook himself away from her, opened his mouth, and she knew she was in trouble. "No, no, don't," she pleaded.

He let out a cry, shrill enough to wake the mountain. Indeed, it seemed that he had, because a moment later the whole ground seemed to tremble.

"Shit." She turned to see it, slow and hesitant.

It rose out of the snow, huge and terrifying and very, very angry. Even as it lurked over to her, she couldn't move. Soon it was close enough that she could feel its breath, and when it growled in its low, terrible voice, she felt its spittle hit her.

She reached for another pokéball, the one that could actually help her, but she couldn't find it. She remembered then the bag, and wondered if she'd...

She had. There had only been enough room in her jacket for a couple of balls, and she'd been fearful she'd need them for the capture. The final one, the one that held the only thing that could save her now, she'd stuffed into her bag. She'd meant to take it out before she reached the summit, but it had slipped her mind completely.

And now, that little bit of carelessness was about to get her killed.

"Shit," she whispered. She stayed low, backed away, slow and quiet. "Shit, shit, shit."

The abomasnow moved, one foot slamming against the ground, and the last of her courage left her. "Shit!" she yelled, and she turned, and she ran.

The ground was slippery, and she was forced to throw out her arms to keep her balance as she ran. There was no way she'd make the climb back down. The stairs were her only choice, even if she could barely see the slope of them under the snow. She hopped down them, guessing roughly where they were, too frightened of the thing chasing her to worry much about the crumbling steps. Her run turned into a skip, though, as she placed each foot down delicately, just to be on the safe side. Not safe enough, as it turned out, because halfway down she took a step and her foot was met with nothing, and she plunged, hitting her backside against the stone as she fell. She slid down the rest of the way, screaming, her heart and her throat left somewhere above her as she bumped against each step on the way down. Finally, she hit the bottom, wincing at the pain of her bruised behind. There was no time to wait though - she could still hear the creature's growls as it barrelled down the slope after her - so she picked herself up and ran blindly into the storm.

She kept running, wildly and in completely the wrong direction, heading out towards almost total nothingness. The only thing that lay ahead, that gave her a tiny bit of hope, was a cave, far off in the distance. She made a beeline for it, dancing gingerly over the snow so as not to get sucked into any more deep patches.

The creature was behind her, surprisingly fast for its size and more at home in the mountain than she could ever hope to be. But she was fast too, and she'd had a slight head-start, and her body was pumped full of adrenaline, so it was her who made it to the cave first. The mouth was small, which at this point felt like a gift from above. She ducked, threw herself in, and landed hard against the ground.

It was only then that she realised how hopeless her situation was.

The ceiling of the cave was low, and she was tall, so she was forced into an uncomfortable crouch. Worse, when she flashed her torch against the back wall, she saw that it was a dead end. There was nowhere to go. All her supplies were still in her bag too, so either she stayed and died of thirst or starvation, or she went out and got mauled by a vicious pokémon.

Neither of those options seemed too appealing. But, with nothing else to do, she sat herself down, and resigned herself to her fate.

So, that was it then. She had no plan. No escape. And here she'd thought this time would be different. How stupid she had been. She'd always been pretty bad at planning ahead, but leaving the one thing that could have helped her at the bottom of that cliff was definitely a new low.

She was going to die up there, alone. No one would ever find her. No one even knew where she was. All she had managed to prove, with this reckless little journey, was that was she had never been cut-out to be a trainer after all, a fact she had long suspected anyway.

She pushed her back up against the cave wall. It was cold, and wet, and not at all comfy. Maybe it was all she deserved.

Her wallowing was interrupted, then, by a quiet little whimper. She turned her torch to it, hoping that it wasn't some other monster that wanted her dead.

Thankfully, it wasn't. Lying in the corner, curled up in the dark, was a pokémon, though a far cry from the beast outside. This was a tiny runt of a thing, even for a sneasel. It was thin, and its head seemed comically large compared to its tiny body. Even its claws didn't look quite right, dull and not as straight as they should have been, and its feathers were short and withered, even for a female's. Certainly, this wasn't the kind of pokémon she'd been hoping to find, but the poor thing looked hurt, and Kathy couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

She still had some berries left in her pocket, and she took them out then. "Here," she said, pushing her hand towards the pokémon. "Here, take some."

The creature looked up, wincing in the bright light of the torch. She made a noise, perhaps a failed attempt at a snarl, and edged away. Now that Kathy had a proper look at her, it was obvious how bad a way she was in. Her body was covered in scratches, and there was a thin scar running straight through one of her eyes. It was weird; she clearly wasn't a fighter, and sneasels weren't even local to these parts. Someone was responsible for this.

"You're hurt," she said. "These'll help. Take them."

Slowly, the sneasel reached out to her. Kathy bit her lip, trying to ignore the pain of the claw scratching against her hand. Even if it hurt though, Sneasel had taken the berries, and that was something to be thankful for.

Sneasel looked at the handful closely, examining them, then threw them all in her mouth and swallowed them whole. She smiled then, and Kathy knew she'd earned her trust.

"See, doesn't that feel much better?"

She nodded, and held out her hands again.

"Oh, sorry, I don't have any more. Not here, anyway..."

The sneasel's brow furrowed, curious. "They're in my bag," Kathy explained, and her gaze flickered behind her, back to where she'd left all her stuff. "Far away. Out of reach. Sorry."

Then the pokémon did something unexpected. She lifted her head, sniffed the air, and darted out of the cave. "Wait, no!" Kathy shouted, crawling towards the mouth.

The abomasnow was still out there, waiting. It saw the sneasel run out, tried to hit out at her, but she was too fast. She slipped right under its arms, rushed off, and was then gone from sight.

"Great," Kathy muttered. It was typical, really. Give a pokémon food and you'll befriend them quicker; that's what all the schools taught. But in reality, it was much more likely that they'd just run off to find more to eat.

Alone again, Kathy lay down on the wet ground, closed her eyes, and quietly wished that she was anywhere else but there.

Little did Kathy know, she wasn't the only one on the mountain that night. In fact, the moment she had ran from the summit, two others had re-emerged from their hiding spots.

"Well, that was annoying," Mercury said, slithering out from behind the furthest pillar. He ran a hand through his slick, red hair, tightening it around his scowled features.

"Yeah, I guess," said Venus, her tone dismissive. Hardly surprising, considering she hadn't paid him any attention since they'd gotten there. She was too busy looking at the bulky device in her hands, watching it bleep and flash incomprehensibly. How she could see it was anyone's guess; she hadn't cut her own red hair in so long that it fell over her eyes whenever she tilted her head. On top of that, despite the size of the device she was holding, the screen was tiny and dim; the damn thing was built about twenty years ago, and it would've already been out-of-date then.

God, they needed more funding. It was beginning to get embarrassing.

He paced around the ruins, letting his fingers brush against anything and everything he walked past. The columns were insanely old, and he liked the way he could feel the stone crumbling under his hands. He grinned as he placed his palm against one of them and the whole thing moved, threatening to topple.

"Don't," his sister said, without even looking up from her screen, and he pulled his hand away. He was careful not to get on her bad side, especially since he'd noticed the boss's fondness for her.

"What do your readings say?" he asked.

"They're all over the place," she said. "Up and down, high and low, stretching and shrinking... It's weird. But mostly unhelpful. We need them to be stable, otherwise this won't work."

He moved over her shoulder, peering down at the device. The screen was flashing, one dark colour fading into another. He had no idea how she knew what that meant but, then again, she had always been the nerdy one in the family. If she said things weren't right, then they weren't right. Which was annoying, because it would mean even more months of searching.

"So this isn't the place?" he asked.

"Not the place, not the time, one or the other. Or both, maybe." She pressed a button on the device, and the screen blinked and died. "Dammit. She is gonna be pissed."

"Well, you can have fun telling her," he said.

"And where are you going?" Finally she looked at him, brushing the hair from her eyes.

"I have an appointment with the professor, remember?" He tugged a pokéball off of his belt and pressed the button, a metallic bird materialising in front of him. Skarmory - not the most reliable pokémon he had, but its steel coating was perfect for flying through a storm. "You failed your part. I'm not failing mine."

He knew she was saying something in protest, but the words were drowned out by the wind, and also he wasn't listening. He climbed onto the skarmory's back, pressed himself flat against it, and then took off into the night, leaving her alone on the freezing death-trap of a mountain.

There was no way of telling how long she'd been hiding out in the cave. Minutes. Hours. They all bled together. The sky was pitch black now, and she could still hear the abomasnow prowling around outside, waiting.

She'd found a dry spot off ground against the wall, untouched by the snow, and she'd managed to set up a fire there. Only a small one, but at least she had something to warm her hands again. Thank God she'd been smart enough to stuff some dry branches inside her coat. Not smart enough to bring any water, or her only pokémon, or food.

Yes, she was going to die there. She was sure of that now.

With nothing else to do, she clapped her hands together, closed her eyes, and prayed.

She wasn't even sure who or what she was praying to. There were some myths about the mountain, she was sure, of old, forgotten gods. Perhaps one of those could help her now. She almost laughed at the idea, but what other hope did she have?

Something barked. It sounded close, but it couldn't have been. There was nothing there but her and her fire. But then it barked again, and the sound echoed against the cave walls, and she knew she wasn't alone.

Hesitant, she opened one eye, and gasped. There was the sneasel, the same one as before, looking right up at her with her one good eye. There was an almost worried look on the pokémon's face, like she actually... cared.

"Hey," Kathy said softly. "Didn't expect to see you again."

The pokémon cocked her head, as if she were asking a question.

"Don't worry about me," Kathy said. "I'm fine." And then she laughed. Here she was, lying to the only thing on the mountain that actually seemed to care about her. And an animal, no less.

The pokémon lifted her clawed hands then, holding up something small and round and untouched by the snow. Stunned, Kathy took it from her and held it, unable to believe her eyes.

It was an ultra ball, and one she recognised by the many scratches that covered its surface. She could even feel the heat coming from inside it, almost burning the palms of her hands. "Did you... find this?"

The sneasel beamed, and nodded.

"How...?" she started, but she let the question trail off. It wasn't something she needed to know the answer to. All she knew was that she had prayed for help, and help had come.

"Here," she said, unclipping the spare pokéball from her belt. "This might get intense. You'll be safe in here."

The sneasel eyed the ball with some suspicion, but Kathy supposed she'd done enough to earn the pokémon's trust, because one of her claws tapped the button and she instantly vanished inside. The ball clicked, and Kathy returned it to her belt.

"Okay," she said, pulling her thick gloves back over her fingers. "Let's do this."

The moment she stepped out the cave, the abomasnow turned, drawing up to its full, terrifying height. It towered over her, a mountain in itself. But now, she had the right tools to overcome it.

She couldn't speak. She was still too scared for that. All she could do was hold the ultra ball towards her opponent, and let it fall open.

The pokémon burst out between them. The wind blew through his deep, orange fur, making it seem like the dancing flames of a roaring fire. The snow under his feet was already melting away into watery puddles, and even from a distance, she could feel his heat bearing against her. The abomasnow backed up, fear on its face. She had wanted a god; today at least, this was as close as she was going to get.

"Arcanine," she managed, "do it."

He turned his head, and gave a solemn nod. One breath from him, and the mountain was ablaze.


End file.
